Made to last, days gone by!

Is anything made to last anymore?

When I was in my teens, people were driving 30 year old cars, and watching old tv sets for 10 years or more, hi-fi systems from the 1950's are still working, old cars and motorbikes the same.

Now compare that with the junk we get served up now, Chinese products that break first use, nails that bend, cars that have built in obsolescence, Apple phones that are software bugged to slow down in time for the next expensive release, at least Apple got caught and fined for that.

I have dealt with electrics for a very long time, and since I used to have my own hi-fi shop and do the repairs myself, I still keep my hand in with repairing some electronics, and have noticed that they now use inferior parts like capacitors that have a very low shelf or usage life, once one goes in a tv set or amplifier, for most it is more expensive to get it fixed, than it is to buy a new tv or amplifier.

Capitalism!

It was my laptops demise today that made me write this, as on said laptop was over 100 articles I had written in my spare time, I had intended to give some to iamstan to put on my old deliberator account, the others I was going to post on here, and for now, they are gone. That laptop only lasted 4 years, the spec at the time was quite impressive, AMD a8 gpu, 1 tb hdd, 8 gig of ram - ddr3, though all that counts for zero if the thing will not even turn on and it does not turn on now.

Also when I was younger, the two main engineering giants, in this part of the world were west Germany and the UK, now both hardly make a thing, sure they both make cars, though nearly everything else is farmed out to China, even once great hi-fi manufacturer Quad who make speakers that cost $9,000 have them made in China. Where did we go wrong?

This is the problem with the current system or one of the problems at least, companies have to pander to share holders, so it is profit first and local jobs second. I hear on the news quite often about China stealing other countries technology and copying it, the truth is though our own countries are stupid enough to tell the Chinese how to make products for us, give them the technical drawings, allow them to make them with our brand names on them, then dumb enough to think they will not use the technology we have given them!

I have no idea how we get out of this mess.

You get what you pay for we used to say, that is no longer the case, I have spent over $100 on training shoes by Nike, and they only lasted 6 months, also bought the most expensive tv's and they last the same amount of time as a $200 set. So where do we get our long term value for money in the current system if everything is built to die fast, so we continue to consume and obey!

We do not have endless resources on this planet, and once we have used up all the trees we are doomed anyway, though the way capitalism is designed on ever increasing consumerism we are heading to such fate head first, with no helmet on, and it worries me to watch, those greedy pigs in power care not, as long as they have yachts and dine with only their own kind.

Capitalism is as bad as every other ism, no matter which you choose, they are all as bad as the next, as someone will abuse the "ism" to their own advantage.

Let me know your thoughts below, what you think may be the answer, as I am all out of ideas for now!

With my old laptop dead, the judge died with it, so now I am a lawyer, representing the moral minority. Have a superb weekend, I hope your electronics last longer than mine.

My suggestion is that it is consumerism (not crapitalism per se) which is behind poor quality production.

For over 30 years since obtaining my home the same fridge that was already in the home is still working. People tell me how much more energy efficient a new fridge would be, yet it makes me wonder how much in fiat the electrical savings would be compared to the cost of replacing fridges over those 30+ years.

Your logic is faultless, theirs is flawed, I agree with you more than those that always want the latest greatest thing, as we know, things are just not made to last any more.
Nice to see you again, I thought you had left us on here.

I am not sure when the term repair became a dirty word, but now it is cheaper to replace almost any item than to take it to a repair shop. They way the circuit boards are today you need a microscope, not a magnifying glass to look and see if a part got fried. How many people do you think understand ohm's law or what it even means, I myself would have to completely refresh my memory of it if I ever wanted to break out the non-existing oscilloscope and soldering iron, and I can't even remember what the thingy-ma-jig was called that was used to measure voltage current and wattage, (never mind It came to me now voltmeter I think). Things are just to small to solder, and then there is the problem of finding the right capacitor or resistor or semiconductor.

Tubes used to be so much easier, pull the blackened one, go to the grocery store, plug it in the tube tester, and see if it is bad, buy new one replace, and it worked, if it blew again after replacing then you took the TV or Stereo down to the repair shop because something was wrong.

We call them valves, and funny you say that, I pulled two old kt66's out the cupboard the other day, they cost pennies years ago, and after looking on evilbay they now sell for way over $100 each, happy days if ever I decide to sell them, good old GEC.

I guess I should have been saving tubes, they never cost much to replace, that's why they had tube testing machines in a lot of grocery stores here in the states. Less than a buck for most of them. I think they have gone up percentage wise more than the price of gold or silver.

I think that is not capitalism, I agree that all isms are bad but they are criminal when imposed through the state, with the monopoly of violence and all that it can create with licenses, protectionism, etc.
In the case of programmed obsolence the truth is that I don't see the benefit by any side but to entertain, keep the system going or to follow the same strategy as with the currency, goods without the possibility of saving. What they are imposing us with that I think is ephemeral consumerism.

It is endless consumerism in a planet with finite resources, we do not have infinite sources, and with the amount of things we bury, old electronics, nuclear radiation used oil, we are contaminating our own back yard, it has to end one day, or there will be nothing left to consume.

Our intelligence and collective activity is limitless, new deposits and materials are found like silicon or coltan, as well as new uses, once people accumulated paper or coal and now they're just to light the barbecue, if we generate or discover a procedure to spend half, you have the double of resources, and so potentially, although the Indian saying is true and money can not be eaten, I believe that the greatest evil we suffer is the state and all its consequences.

I beg to differ, the greatest evil we suffer in giving faith to paper money, and governments, when every person should be their own governance, no man or woman should force another human being to pay tax, to supprt those that print fiat money, it makes little sense, and add in police, who tax people via fines, and the whole corrupt law system, and we find ourselves here, in this reality now, not what can be, what IS.

Are you a anarchist? I believe there's a lot of stuff in government we definitely don't need but protection isn't one of them. Do you think people could live securely in their residence if there wasn't any threat of law enforcement? Could we even walk down the street safely?

Yes I suppose I am, and it is proven that private security is 200 - 400% more effective than law enforcement, as they do not tax people with fines, they act as a deterrent rather than a rule by force.

With ever expanding government, we will all end up working for them the way it is heading.
Did you know in Scotland there is a state snooper for every child born? If they do not like the way you are bringing up your child the state takes the child off you, you are not allowed to know who the snooper is also, and children in government care systems are 150% more likely to be sexually abused or die before reaching 16, to me that is a criminal offense, and a sign of government out of control.

Can we do it now? safety is an illusion, in the past we rely on family and friends, now to the state where you are not an individual anymore, making us just another number, do not expect them to give much for you.

More of the same, leaving a state to make another, again the same trap is there, they could do something with that by location and infrastructure, but it has not been cut already for convenience, now here people are ceasing to be left, right or whatever, to be for or against '' Spain'' and feeling have more impact than reason, binarization works well.

We've gotten ourselves in a mess, I think that is starting to resonant with a lot of people now. At least here in the US I think people are starting to think it was better to pay a bit more then let the 1% sit there and get richer at the expense of everyone else getting poorer. How do we turn that around? People in a country have to ban together to support one another, start a movement to place visible tags on products that promote they were made in one's country, start taking more time to shop around for items made in one's own country, only buy foreign if you really, really have to.

I do not see the free market as the problem, the 1% though is, they only think of profit not people, hence most countries goods being made in the place with the lowest wages, China, and they aim to make America the next place to manufacture, to do this they will have to break the economy and make wages competitive, which would be $1 a day, and that is what they will do, if not stopped, the $ will be dead first, that is the only way to ahieve this not so master master plan.

I am thinking now of how my dad is used to the idea of repairing his faulty electronics. That was the old way, nowdays you realize it doesnt worth it, when something gets defective you replace it with a new one.

I still repair, and the consumerism of replace rather than repair is a major problem as we fill the land up with old broken products, the UK alone ships 100's of millions of tonnes of broken items to be land filled in poorer countries, leaving them with "our" problem as the governments in these places do not think about the health affect on their own people.
WE are a waste society now.

Yep they were better when people could have a go at fixing them themselves, now you need a computer just to get lights off the dash (service) and then you have all that electronics as you state, all doomed to fail sooner rather than later.

Yes, and in a crisis where dealers go out of business then you can't even get to 'certified' 'help' BS.
We need a free car design. DIY your own modern E-car, from off the shelf parts and no overcomplicated crap

A DIY car would be awesome, there is a flatpack vehicle named OXhttp://oxgvt.com/specs-ox-all-terrain-vehicle/ but that is not opensource as far as i know... If the can build and sell this diesel truck , then an opensource community designed e-car should also be possible. A cool straight forward ultra functional car...

And if you are wondering where all my votes come from, I use smartmarket, as the system is bleeding steem and steem power, there is no better time than now to get votes, a $5 post is paying over 7 steem in steem and sp, and I prefer real votes to bidbots. :-)

My Dad still has his parents old English Electric fridge the ones with the big pull latch and the curved top. This one must be over 50 years old and still works and never had to be fixed and it has been through a few house moves and it is crazy heavy to move though. How many of today's fridges will last 50 + years?

Pft none I would think, I bought one 4 years ago and the seal is perishing already, and they refused to cover the seal under warranty as it started to rip in the first 12 months.
And that is my point, nothing now is made to last.

I'm probably a lot older than you are but when I was a kid people didn't own TVs, they rented them. I remember the first TV we bought was in 1973 and it was still working when I moved house about 8 years ago and I chucked it.